It would be nice if more anthropometric datasets were publicly available. Perhaps some of the above-mentioned are, but I didn't see any mention of how to obtain them in the paper itself.

PLoS ONE 8(1): e52317. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0052317

Lack of Support for the Association between Facial Shape and Aggression: A Reappraisal Based on a Worldwide Population Genetics Perspective

Jorge Gómez-Valdés et al.

Antisocial and criminal behaviors are multifactorial traits whose interpretation relies on multiple disciplines. Since these interpretations may have social, moral and legal implications, a constant review of the evidence is necessary before any scientific claim is considered as truth. A recent study proposed that men with wider faces relative to facial height (fWHR) are more likely to develop unethical behaviour mediated by a psychological sense of power. This research was based on reports suggesting that sexual dimorphism and selection would be responsible for a correlation between fWHR and aggression. Here we show that 4,960 individuals from 94 modern human populations belonging to a vast array of genetic and cultural contexts do not display significant amounts of fWHR sexual dimorphism. Further analyses using populations with associated ethnographical records as well as samples of male prisoners of the Mexico City Federal Penitentiary condemned by crimes of variable level of inter-personal aggression (homicide, robbery, and minor faults) did not show significant evidence, suggesting that populations/individuals with higher levels of bellicosity, aggressive behaviour, or power-mediated behaviour display greater fWHR. Finally, a regression analysis of fWHR on individual's fitness showed no significant correlation between this facial trait and reproductive success. Overall, our results suggest that facial attributes are poor predictors of aggressive behaviour, or at least, that sexual selection was weak enough to leave a signal on patterns of between- and within-sex and population facial variation.

2 comments:

"all the databases matched with the general definition of fWHR (the ratio of bizygomatic breadth to nasion-prostion height)"

I would be interested to see this reproduced for nasion-subspinale:bizygomatic or supraorbital foramen-supspinable:bizygomatic differences rather than nasion-prosthion:bizygomatic.

Nasion-prosthion has the quality of being affected by the entire increase in size of the lower maxilla (which increase in size along with the mandible) in males (due to larger facial size and allometry), which may "wash out" the effect of absolutely greater facial widths either in some populations or generally (fyi for anyone who does not know, the prosthion is the lowest point on the maxilla and the subspinale being the lowest point on the nasal opening).

Here we show that 4,960 individuals from 94 modern human populations belonging to a vast array of genetic and cultural contexts do not display significant amounts of fWHR sexual dimorphism.

No sexual dimorphism in fWHR.

samples of male prisoners of the Mexico City Federal Penitentiary condemned by crimes of variable level of inter-personal aggression (homicide, robbery, and minor faults) did not show significant evidence, suggesting that populations/individuals with higher levels of bellicosity, aggressive behaviour, or power-mediated behaviour display greater fWHR

An ethnically heterogeneous sample shows no correlation between agression and fWHR.

no significant correlation between this facial trait and reproductive success

In a non-fecund society where intercourse has been decoupled from reproduction, there's no correlation between fWHR and number of children.

Seems like the only significant finding is that fWHR isn't sexually dimorphic - there are too many confounding factors for anything else.

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